It’s been nearly a year since I traveled to Istanbul, Turkish Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan. I try to keep up with Turkish politics as much as I can. The biggest recent story, of course, is the disgraceful murder of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, shot in broad daylight by a teenage ultranationalist thug. Dink was under constant threat of death, and the Turkish state — surprise — did not provide him with necessary protection.
My travel companion Yigal Schleifer wrote two interesting accounts for the Christian Science Monitor, here and here.
As I wrote here, anyone who thinks of the U.S. as a land of jingoistic excess ought to study the case of contemporary Turkey, locked in a perilous three-way struggle between secular democrats, secular fascists (like the murderer of Dink) and Islamic theocrats.
Comments are closed.